BANGKOK, 28 March 2012 – The integration of the government’s three major health care funds to take effect on April 1 is intended to allow emergency patients to fully benefit from their rights.
National Health Security Office (NHSO) Secretary-General Dr. Winai Sawasdivorn stated that once service links under the three health care programs, namely the Government Welfare Fund, the Social Security Fund and the NHSO fund are implemented, critical patients will be eligible to receive immediate treatment without having first to verify their rights. Hospitals will be obliged to treat these patients until they have recovered before sending them home or forwarding them for further treatment at their designated hospital.
The objective of this new policy is to establish an equal standard of treatment for all types of patients who are members of the three health care programs. By integrating those services, the government aims to eradicate the problem of critical patients being refused treatment at hospitals outside their designated network or being forced to provide advance payment in order to receive emergency treatment.
